Across the road now and then

The Spice Mall across the road from my flat has eight Screens providing enough choice and variety to any Movie buff.

I walk across, am checked with a metal detector followed by body patting, how I detest and hate it but suffer in the interest of security, for any hidden WMD and enter the cool innards of the Mall; a welcome escape from the heat outside radiating from the shimmering concrete pavement and the massive facade of the mall in the baleful Gaze of the Jun sun looking down from the clear sky overhead.

I choose the escalators, in preference to the lift, to the third floor box office as the slow ride provides me a birds eye view, as I ascend from floor to floor, of the mall-rats, the so-called foot-falls, in a frenzy of window shopping and aimless wandering.

There is a choice of tickets; the Rs 500 Gold class, ideal while dating, or the budget at Rs 150. I am neither dating nor have a date waiting and opt for the later. Another metal detector and body patting ritual over I am allowed to enter the foyer; choose a corner bench for the entry gate of the Audi (as the hall are named ) to open and watch in amazement and a bit of smile the rush of people of all hues and ages, very young and those not so old to the counters selling popcorn, coffee, tea, ice cream and an out of place Bhel Poore, all at astronomical rates except bottled water at MRP. Eating, talking, using the cell phone, unmindful of others, while watching the movie all go together are part of the ritual and the mall culture

Once inside I look for the corner or the isle seat marked on my ticket and settle down. The lights dim, the screen comes alive with the credits and the high decibel surround sound surrounds me; for a moment my mind wanders and takes me back down the memory lane across the road to times in 1958.

It was some times after we had settled down in our two room house, our first, situated at a corner of the Sujanpur Sericulture Farm near the village of the same name and not far from the unit lines, that a ‘Tented touring Talkies, very much in vogue those days, came and pitched itself on the open ground just across the road from our house.

Come evenings the loud-speaker would be blaring out the current popular film songs interspersed with commercial breaks with some one, in an equally loud voice, announcing the virtues of the film enthralling the urchins collected around and beckoning all and sundry of Sujanpur village to the show.

Unpredictable as ever, Jeet, my bride of a few months, one evening decided to visit the current show; in no position to say no, I walked across to the manager telling him of our plans. He was flabbergasted; least expecting a visit by the dress-circle clientele to his cinema. Since there were no suitable chairs for us, others sat on the ground, he requested if two could be borrowed from our house. Jeet did see the movie, with us sitting on our own chairs; what movie it was is beyond recall.

Certainly watching the movie in the company of late Jeet was far more enjoyable, even though in a simple tent, than sitting alone in the cool comfort of the plush Audi of Shipra Mall across the road.
Brig Lakshman Singh, VSM (Retd)